Overcoming The Holiday Blues!
Picture this: an extended family tucked between fir-lined hills, just outside of the city, the living room lit by a rollicking fireplace, games half-played, wrapping paper strewn everywhere, uncles asleep in lazy boys–the picture of domestic tranquility. There’s also a stain, too awake to change into pajamas, too asleep to play with the dog; tired already of grandparents’ advice that I haven’t received, and angry for no reason.
I’m sure it’s not just me. Something about the winter festivities, specifically, provokes me to arm myself with rollable eyes and twisting, fidgety fingers.
It’s not that I’m ungrateful, or I have a vivid trauma that resurfaces every year, but I just feel a sense of existential dread around the holidays. It rains and the sky grays year-round where I live, so I feel like I can almost certainly rule out seasonal depression, but I find myself unusually weighed down by the idea of wasting my life. I get sick of the smallest routines, become irritable, and who would want that looming around on Christmas or New Years Eve?
There are two things to do: self-isolate and make everything worse or bounce back. I recommend therapy most, even just one or two sessions can be beneficial, but there are a few other options. Everything is about regulation and learning to maintain an uninterruptable calm. Regular meditation, when you wake up or go to bed, is also useful–even just those guided tutorials on YouTube. Interrupting dull sadness is much easier than it seems, even just going for a walk when you wouldn’t expect to, trying a new skill you’ve been hoping to build, exploring a new part of your area, swapping the order of various routines, or reconnecting with an old friend, can be momentarily relieving. Talking with other family members and heavily exercising are also really nice for stress-relief.
Heaps and piles of sparkly adoration,
Lily <3 <3 <3
“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him.” - Mahatma Gandhi
